There has been a strong interest on the part of utility companies, and similar entities, to take advantage of modern technology to reduce costs and increase efficiency in meter reading applications. Traditionally, meters, such as electric, water, and gas meters, have been manually read by a person physically reading each meter. However, recent developments have provided for meters which can be remotely accessed from a central location through wire or wireless (e.g., radio frequency, etc.) communication links. Oftentimes, these remotely accessible meters have battery powered meter interface devices which can access the meter status information, and which can communicate via radio frequency (RF) signals the meter status information to a remotely situated meter reading device.
In a typical operational environment, a meter reading system includes a large number of meter installations. Low maintenance battery-operated meters are desirable to facilitate operating efficiency and to reduce maintenance costs. These remote meters typically become exposed to changing environmental conditions, such as extreme changes in temperature which require that the radio RF transmitter be able to operate over changes in temperature and battery voltage. Therefore, there exists a need for a low cost radio transmitter located within the meter interface which can operate effectively over changes in temperature and supply voltage variations.